Gimmelwald Day 2- Hiking the Schilthorn

Over breakfast (homemade bread, jam, and hot chocolate) at Hotel Mittagorn, we decided to hike to the top of the Schilthorn for our second day in Gimmelwald. Tim, the Hotel Manager, showed us his favorite route up and then we set off with our trusty map. To the top we go!

We started through the forest behind our Hotel and then came to a beautiful canyon and waterfall, which the trail went right under. 

At the barn, we turned left (before hand, we thought the directions were pretty unhelpful, but they made perfect sense during the hike).

The next part was a pretty good climb to get up to a peak, but then we walked along the ridge line  and it was my favorite part of the hike.

Up more elevation to this pristine mountain lake. We skipped some rocks and then up we went.

 I took a picture of Paul by the lake then he took a picture of where I took the picture from. 360 degrees of beautiful.

The last part of the hike was pretty brutal - dark crumbly rock and a lot of elevation to climb.

We got to the top and this way our view.

At the peak there is a restaurant that was used in the filming of a James Bond movie. There is a tram that goes all the way to the top, so even though we'd just spent hours climbing one of the most difficult hikes of my life, people were enjoying the same view without spending any energy except some Swiss Francs. But, they did have delicious food so there's that.

Through the telescope of the prettiest peaks - I think this may be the Eiger.

The difficult hike (full of great one-on-one time with Paul and lots of good conversation) was worth every minute of that beautiful Swiss Alp view. 

Gimmelwald Elevation: 4,485 ft (1,367 m)

Schilthorn Peak Elevation: 9,744 feet (2,970 meters)

Vertical climb: 5,259 ft

We enjoyed our last night in Gimmelwald but it was bittersweet, we didn't want to leave that beautiful place. Here is Paul on our room's balcony.

Another delicious meal by Walter with more great stories from his 90 years of life.

And then off we went the next morning. We had some time while we waited for the tram so we played on the slide.

 I have thought about Gimmelwald every single day since we left there. My heart aches for that place.